World War
II: Youth on the Move

Research by
Melanie Wright and Sharyl Harrison

U.
N. Study Group

Starlight
Club

The
upheaval of World War II freed many young people from conforming to
traditional parental expectations for their lives. Many youth left school
to join the labor force or the military; others, especially younger
teens, turned the distracted state of many adults into an opportunity
to explore the world on their own terms. The YWCA sought to keep up
with the new interests, mobility, and needs of youth, especially of
girls and young women. Pressure from teens for co-ed social activities
which had been building since World War I finally got results as the
need for chaperoned amusements became more urgent. When the YWCA founded
new clubs in town and a canteen at Vanport, staff and volunteers were
better able to keep a watchful eye over the activities of young people.

Hubba-Hubba
Hut

The
"Hubba Hubba Hut" at Vanport, which functioned with volunteers and contributions
from the community, was coordinated by the YWCA. The Starlight Club, a
"teen-age nite club" was an interracial group for high school girls and
boys that opened in November, 1944.[1]

Co-Rec
Council, c. 1946

Girl Reserves staff worked with schools, collected dues and memberships,
and ran events, most notably a weekly Friday night dance. Starlight lasted two years, when its
interracial idealism transferred over to a permanent club, the "Co-Rec
Council," which incorporated a U.N.-inspired, inclusive, "one world" sense of mission into its recreational
program for young men and women. Young people's
spaces continued to be the zone for experimention--and disappointment--where
crossing the color line was concerned. After the war, white support for
integrated social programs for youth at Williams dissipated. "[A]s long
as we have an interest or recreation program here I may be able to keep
it interracial," noted a Williams Avenue leader in 1945. "If it becomes
a Y-Teen group with a full program, including co-ed dancing, the few white
members will be instantly withdrawn. This is not a supposition," she insisted,
"their mothers have told me so."[2]

1.
Report by Irene Walker, "Starlight Club, Portland, Oregon,"
19 February 1944, National YWCA Records, New York City (Microfilm,
Reel #207).Back
to Text